Homemade Pita Bread

Our plan was to make gyros with our leftover lamb.  So, I needed pita bread and tzatziki sauce.  I found a recipe for homemade pita bread on The Fresh Loaf.  I decided to use it's ingredients, but to change the method a little.

Ingredients

3 cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 Tablespoon sugar or honey

1 packet yeast (or, if from bulk, 2 teaspoons yeast)

1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature

2 tablespoons olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening

Method

I used honey and olive oil.  I changed the method because I wanted to mix the dough in a bread machine.  I put the wet ingredients in first and the dry ingredients on top.  I used the dough setting on the bread machine.  I did add an extra 3/4 cup of flour to get the right dough consistency.  Then, I let the bread machine do the rest of the work.

 After the machine was done mixing, kneading and rising I removed the dough and made 8 small dough balls.  Then, I followed the rest of the recipe from The Fresh Loaf....

Roll each piece into a ball, cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel, and let them rest for 20 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax so that it'll be easier to shape.

While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 400 degrees. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to preheat as well. If you do not have a baking stone, turn a cookie sheet upside down and place it on the middle rack of the oven while you are preheating the oven. This will be the surface on which you bake your pitas.

After the dough has relaxed for 20 minutes, spread a light coating of flour on a work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a little bit of flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin or your hands to stretch and flatten the dough. You should be able to roll it out to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch thick. If the dough does not stretch sufficiently you can cover it with the damp towel and let it rest 5 to 10 minutes before trying again.

Open the oven and place as many pitas as you can fit on the hot baking surface. They should be baked through and puffy after 3 minutes. If you want your pitas to be crispy and brown you can bake them for an additional 3 to 5 minutes.

The Results...
I baked the pita bread for 5-6 minutes on a baking stone.  They were fresh and delicious!  We had pita bread, but we still needed some tzatziki sauce.